


Dream Eater

by angelic_ly



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gender-neutral Reader, Reader-Insert, i wrote this all in one night and it killed me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-17 23:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17570267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelic_ly/pseuds/angelic_ly
Summary: You were his Dream Eater, and you'd protect him from all of his nightmares. He would do the same for you.





	Dream Eater

He’s only there after you fall asleep.

You saw him in your dreams. The first time you saw him, you dismissed it -- you saw strangers in your dreams all the time. You must have passed him by on the street or something, so his face ended up here. He became a recurring sight, but you didn’t really think much of it until you had that first nightmare.

You had watched a horror movie with your friends that night, despite knowing that you couldn’t handle horror movies at all and that this film would definitely keep you up all night -- which it did. You had all the lights on and calming music playing softly in the background when you finally fell into fitful rest.

That nightmare had to be the worst you’d had in a while. The movie was a walk in the park compared to your nightmare. Maybe it was because you were actually experiencing the events firsthand this time, or maybe it was because you were alone (or so you thought), but you were frantic and scared out of your wits. 

Nightmares had this tendency to trap the dreamers, so you couldn’t seem to wake up no matter what you did. There was no escaping from this.

Then he arrived, in the most cliché, “knight in shining armor” fashion possible.

With a single swing of his weapon, the nightmares were vanquished and everything was right again. It was then and there that you finally asked him who he was, since clearly he wasn’t a part of your mind. You couldn’t control your dreams, much less your nightmares.

He introduced himself as Riku. He told you that he's something called a “Dream Eater,” someone to protect you from your nightmares and keep you safe. It sounded like a joke, but you tried to accept it in spite of that. He smiled and chuckled, and then you woke up. 

He showed up in all of your dreams, and the two of you would talk quite a bit whenever there was time -- usually, that was only when you dreamed of an island at sunset. The waves crashed against the sand and the sea breeze blew gently through his hair. Riku looks at home there. He always looks relatively calm, but he always looks the most relaxed when you’re there.

You shared random things about your day with him and he returned the favor, but most of the time you two tried to figure out the whole Dream Eater thing. You were still having a bit of a hard time believing it, and Riku seemed happy to explain -- well, more like share his theories on it more than anything.

It turned out he knew as little as you did about it. He’d read about it in books, but the passages were vague at best, and things like names just come to the tip of his tongue whenever prompted. Dream Eaters protect their chosen from Nightmares. That’s all he could confirm.

The thing is, Riku is his own person as well, as you would quickly learn. He’s got a life in the waking world, far outside of your dreams and far outside of your reach. None of the puzzle pieces were falling together in a way that completed the bigger picture for you; it didn’t really make sense, and you told him as much. 

“I think it’s like this,” Riku started, his hands in his lap and his gaze steady on the ocean, “I’m your Dream Eater, but you’re also mine. We’ll protect each other from our nightmares, like a joint effort. You started showing up in my dreams around the same time that I started showing up in yours, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence, but I don’t know what the connection is.” He turned to look at you, eyes bright and soothing in the sunset. “I didn’t know you before I met you here, and you didn’t know me either.”

“This sounds like magic,” you muttered, crossing your arms. “But why you and me? And why like this?”

Riku shrugged. “I couldn’t say. But there’s got to be a reason you and I were brought together.” He smiled at you, and the sight of it made your heart flutter in your chest. “But it’s not so bad.”

You gave a shaky smile in return, flustered by your feelings. “That’s true.”

It was a while longer before Riku had his first nightmare since the two of you met. There was darkness everywhere, completely covering the island the two of you frequent. Everything about it was wrong -- there were shadowy creatures rising from the ground, and the wind whipped around you in razor-sharp gales. Riku was nowhere to be found. A weapon appeared in your hands, and though you’d never had any kind of combat training, your body moved on its own.

Your feet moved by themselves. It was almost like you’d lost your autonomy, but everything in your body, in your very soul, was being pulled in one direction. Instinctively, you knew you were getting pulled towards Riku, and you followed the tug. You had to find him, and you had to keep him safe. You were his Dream Eater, and you’d protect him from his nightmares.

Finally you found him deep inside a cave. There was a giant doorway towards the back that spewed darkness in an endless flow. Riku stood completely still, shell-shocked and horrified at the sight before him. You couldn’t seem to catch his attention no matter what you did. His face was a mask of fear that you’d never seen before then, and it scared you.

You hated seeing him like that, and you still do.

You turned towards the doorway, gripping your weapon tightly in your hands. There had to be some way to stop this darkness, to keep Riku safe, to do your job--

You ran straight into the darkness, vanquishing any foes that broke through to charge at you. You distantly heard Riku’s cries of protest, and while you were relieved to have finally broken through to him, you couldn’t linger on that thought or stop to appease him. 

Your fingers hooked around the edge of the door and you shoved with all your might, pushing against the darkness. It was a monumental effort, to say the least. That darkness was incredibly strong, but you just grit your teeth and pushed harder.

_ Keep Riku safe, keep Riku safe, keep Riku safe-- _

Your heels dug into the sand, but you pushed harder still, and finally you felt the door give, and you were finally making some progress. With every inch you gained, the darkness seemed to fight harder against you, but you wouldn’t let it win. You let out a cry with the final shove, and the door snapped shut with a boom. All of the shadowy creatures disappeared at once, and Riku fell to his knees.

You ran over to him, dropping down to his level and wrapping your arms tightly around him. “I’m so glad you’re safe,” you breathed, your eyes stinging. Now that all the adrenaline was gone and that invisible hand was no longer tugging you along, the weight of what you’d just done came crashing down onto you. Abruptly, you realized that you were shaking as you held him close.

Riku held you just as tightly as you did him, his words whispered and oh so tiny. “Thank you.”

Since then, horror movies have had nothing on Riku’s nightmares.

He has them more frequently than you do after that night. Most nights it’s a repeat of that first time, but as time continues forward, new monsters pop up that you protect him from. 

You learn about Riku’s friends, Sora and Kairi, and you learn about how he betrayed them. At least, that’s what he calls it, but his retelling of the events is incredibly biased, and he seems intent on loathing himself and his actions. No matter what you say, you can’t seem to change his mind that what he did was abhorrent and reprehensible. 

He tells you that he’d do anything to make things right. You tell him that you’d do anything to make him happy. It stumbles into a brief argument -- you make it a point to get it through his incredibly thick skull that he  _ does _ deserve to be happy, even after the things he did.

If nothing else, you’re going to make at least  _ that _ happen for him.

You start studying lucid dreaming so you can give him the best dreams possible, just a little break from what has to be an incredibly chaotic life. 

Sometimes it’s just a relaxing evening, goofing off in the sand on his home island. Sometimes it’s playing video games in your room. Sometimes it’s telling him stories with only the happiest endings to soothe his mind. Sometimes it’s a trip to the carnival, where you two can eat cotton candy and funnel cake to your heart’s content and never get sick. Sometimes it’s just sightseeing, going around to all the landmarks you can think of.

Lucid dreaming is difficult at times, but the smile on his face is worth all the strife. 

His nightmares don’t become any less frequent, but their severity steadily declines. Soon, it’s no effort at all to dispel them. You consider it progress, even if it’s small. Baby steps.

The two of you are sitting on the island -- on the paopu tree, as he calls it -- when he brings up something you’d been hoping he wouldn’t notice. “It’s been a while since you had a nightmare.”

That’s on purpose. You do everything you can to avoid having a nightmare. Maybe this whole Dream Eater thing  _ is _ supposed to be a joint effort, but you don’t want him to push himself harder than he already does. You knew something like this wouldn’t escape his notice, but you couldn’t help but hope. You just want to keep him safe. 

You tell him as much. He responds exactly how you thought he would. “I mean, it’s good that you’re not having any nightmares, but you shouldn't be purposely avoiding them just for my sake.”

You raise an eyebrow at that. “It’s not only for your sake, you know. Nightmares suck -- you should know that better than anyone. They’re best avoided. Helping you out is a side bonus.”

It makes Riku laugh, and your chest does that thing again. You’ve grown accustomed to it; this warm feeling that grows in your heart whenever Riku is happy. You know exactly what the feeling is, but you don’t want to put a name on it quite yet. You’ll tell him when he finally agrees that what happened wasn’t his fault.

He was a victim of circumstance and heavy, heavy manipulation. He tends to disagree with you on that point, but you know he’ll see it eventually. 

Riku often tells you that he’ll forgive himself when Sora and Kairi forgive him, and the statement makes you laugh a little bit -- you can’t help it.

“What’s so funny about that?” Riku pouts, furrowing his eyebrows and crossing his arms. “They’re the ones I hurt the most…”

You place a reassuring hand on his shoulder, smiling brightly at him. “If Sora and Kairi are anything like you’ve made them out to be, then it’s only a matter of time before you’re forgiving yourself. They don’t seem the type to hold grudges against someone they hold so dear.”

Riku frowns at that, but the mirth in his eyes betrays his expression. “Sora ignored me for a week one time cause I ate the last ice cream bar.”

You cast a sidelong glance at him. “And how old were you guys at the time?”

Red rises on his cheeks. “...five. But still.”

You wave your hands in the air, laughing. “Alright, whatever you say, Riku.”

In the end, you were right. Riku’s nightmares slowly become less frequent, and finally he gives in and tells you that he was wrong. “They forgave me without hesitation. They were both so happy to see me, and -- and Sora started  _ crying _ .” Riku doesn’t try to hide the tears that are streaking down his cheeks. “They forgave me. They don’t -- they  _ forgave _ me.”

His body shakes with relieved sobs, and you hold him through the whole thing. An “I told you so” tries to worm its way past your lips, but you keep it trapped in your throat. It’s probably not unwelcome, but it’d ruin the moment. Riku needs a shoulder to cry on right now, and you’ll be that for him.

You keep your little confession trapped in your throat, too. It doesn’t seem to be the right time for that just yet. Besides, you’ve waited this long, so it can’t hurt to go a little more.

Riku’s nightmares don’t quite stop completely, and they still feature new content every now and then. The latest has been Sora getting possessed by someone named Xehanort -- you get the same vibe from him that you did from Ansem, so you know he’s bad news right off the bat. 

Sora’s movements are always disjointed and awkward during those nightmares, as if he’s a puppet controlled by a machine instead of a person. Your heart aches whenever you have to fight him and you have to endure Riku telling you to stop, that you can’t -- that  _ he _ can’t hurt Sora anymore. But you can’t. 

You’re his Dream Eater, and you’ll keep him safe from  _ all _ of his nightmares.

It after the conclusion of one such battle against Sora that you simply drop your weapon and run to Riku, catching him in your embrace. You know he’s surprised by the gesture, but you know he’s practically stunned when you pull him to you and kiss him.

It’s short and you’re both flustered afterwards. You briefly stare at your hands and wonder why the hell you did that before looking back up at his face. His mouth hangs open and his cheeks are flushed red as he just stares at you. His hands still hold you from your previous hug, and you take that as a good sign.

“I, um,” you stammer, forcing yourself to hold his gaze, “I meant to tell you back when you finally forgave yourself, but I--”

You don’t get to finish, because he kisses you mid-sentence. Your heart sings. 

It’s particularly jarring the next time you see him, because it’s in the real world -- at least, you’re pretty sure it is, because he wasn’t there before.

You’re trying to get some errands done, grocery shopping and the like, but then those shadowy monsters -- Heartless, as you’ve learned to call them -- show up in the town square. You can barely react with the weapon you shortly realize you don’t have when there’s a flash of light and then he’s right there in front of you.

“Riku?” You ask breathlessly, your groceries forgotten on the ground. (Later on, you’re thankful there wasn’t any fresh produce.)

He turns to you, blinks, rubs his eyes a few times, then grins. “This isn’t a dream, then.” And he runs up to hug you.

You laugh as he actually squeezes you so tightly that you’re lifted off of your feet. When he sets you down, it’s accompanied by a passionate kiss. You’re even more breathless by the time he pulls away, and you’re glad to see that his smile is even brighter in the real world than your dreams. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

You grin back and pull him to you for one more kiss. “Nice to meet you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this to add to my portfolio in an application for a zine, and decided to post it here. I hope y'all enjoyed! Feedback is the wine of the gods! <3


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